Is not humankind's service on earth like a hired worker's days?

Like a servant, he longs for shade, and like a hired worker, he waits for his pay.

So I have been given months of emptiness, and nights of trouble have been appointed to me.

If I lie down, I say, 'When will I get up?' But evening has come, and I am full of tossing until dusk.

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of earth; my skin hardens and oozes.

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and end without hope.

Remember that my life is but wind; my eyes will not see good again.

Your eyes will look on me, but I will not be there.

As a cloud vanishes and goes away, so whoever goes down to Sheol does not come up.

He will not return to his house again, and his place will know him no more.

Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?

For I say, 'My couch will comfort me; my bed will bear my complaint.'

Then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.

So my soul chooses strangulation, death, rather than my bones.

I despise my life; I do not want to live forever. Let me go, for my days are fleeting.

What is humankind that you magnify him, and that you set your heart on him?

You visit him every morning and test him every moment.

How long will you not look away from me, not let me go, until I swallow my spit?

If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of humankind? Why have you made me your target, and why have I become a burden to you?

Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; you will seek me, but I will be no more.